Jay Ray Bio Holed up in an A-frame cabin in Wrightwood, California with a four track recorder, the debut record by singer/songwriter Jay Ray, Near Disasters/Sweet Hereafters found its beginnings. Taking inspiration from the surrounding mountains (6000 ft.) and the silence afforded by a town of 3000 people, Jay began sketching loose stories of break-ups, loss, and the eventual reconciliation of all of the above that would make up the message of the album. Organically, Jay sought the help of close friend and record producer Mike Masters (Antigone Rising, Burning Brides) to polish the ideas. Over the next year Jay and Mike got together on weekends and chipped away with very simple yet elegant goals. To do everything themselves. To do everything in one or two takes, and to keep it as direct as possible adding embellishment only when absolutely necessary. A cut and compress approach to let the messages come through. After a while the time spent became Near Disasters/Sweet Hereafters. The result is an intimate recording, like Jay is playing just to you in your living room. The process Jay and Mike stumbled onto seemed to mirror the spirit of the music he grew up playing with his minister father and his family in and around Boise, Idaho in their country western/gospel group when he was 14 years old. “I love a lot of different types of music, but when it comes to writing my own, I always hear songs we played during that time. The Carter family and Johnny Cash. Willie, Waylon, and so on. A lot of Simon and Garfunkel and whatever was playing on the radio in the back of the station wagon seems to come through as well.” Over the years Jay Ray has had the pleasure of opening up shows for a lot of inspiring artists such as Alejandro Escovedo, Richard Buckner, Tim Easton, and Sixteen Horsepower. But starting to play the new album had a more difficult beginning. The first show in Wrightwood was at the local bar/pizza parlor called the Yodeler. Even after playing hundreds of shows in the past, Jay was a little bit nervous about how the quiet, melancholy nature of the music would go over to a drinking crowd. “I hadn’t played out in a while, so I was a little bit freaked out. Then I noticed the crowd was totally silent. I thought ‘great, this is really going to be easier than I thought.’ Then I realized that everyone was signing to each other and that the whole room was packed with a hearing impaired field trip that had stopped for dinner. It was the strangest kind of relief for a first show.” One person who could hear at that show was local concert promoter, and soon to be manager, Dan Campbell, who immediately contacted Jay Ray to play the Wrightwood summer music festival, Music In The Pines. “The music was so clean and clear, and you could really listen to the story in the songs. Finding someone who would actually sing and you could understand the words was very unusual.” The Festival introduced Jay and his music to the entire town and a very warm reception, and Dan Campbell had an idea. He contacted his friend Jim Barnes who was just starting the Ginormous Records label in Wrightwood. After a few conversations they decided to release Near Disasters/Sweet Hereafters. "I had actually been tossing around the idea of starting a record label for some time, and had heard Jay's stuff and really liked it. When I found out that Jay was looking for someone to fund his CD, it took me about two seconds to make the decision. I love the songs, and that says it all." Meetings like this, and the friendships that developed because of it don’t happen everyday. So, things have a strange way of working themselves out sometimes. Love gone south, lost friends and family, and just plain hard living happens to everyone. But sometimes you can survive, retreat, and come back with something that says ‘I made it through that, and life is still beautiful’. For Jay Ray, and hopefully the listener, this debut album is just that. Near Disasters/Sweet Hereafters indeed. Contact Information Press: Lisa Gottheil, lisa@230publicity.com, www.230publicity.com Label: Jim Barnes, Ginormous Records, www.ginormousrecords.com Management: Dan Campbell, Yomama’s Voodoo Lounge presents, www.yomamasvoodoolounge.com